Tutorial

[Marianne]

Hello,

Last week I discovered PTE, bought it and eversince I have been downloading the most beautiful slideshows to find out what the possibilities are.

But I am confused. Take for example the show Black Country Beechbrook.com. I love what is done there. I am making a slideshow of (very) old family pictures, and it would be nice if it looked just a little bit like that one. But how is it done?

Questions:

1. Do you use background and objects in the slides? Or are they all lets say Photoshop pictures? How many pictures does that take?

2. My fading in and out is not smooth. How do you put the numbers? Default they are on 40 and 1500.

3. On what resolution do you save the pictures? And a Photoshop jpg compress of about 5 is that ok? I want to keep good quality pictures, but the show must play on lots of (sometimes slow) computers.

4. Is it not possible to put an example not as an .exe file, but as a .pte file, so you can see what pictures are used and how they are put together? I know this is a bit tricky because anyone then can use your photographs, but maybe as thumbnails, or very low quality pictures? It is just to help newbies like me to get a bit of result.

Hope you can help me out...

Marianne

[Clive Timmons]

Hi Marriane,

Welcome to the Forum you are going to love this programme personally I put text etc, together in photoshop one reason is if the person trying to view your show does not have the same fonts well you get the picture I just find it easier to plan the show this way " your fades well two things size of Jpg would be one thing also performance of processor and if large music files are used all make fades jumpy so try 800x600 dpi or smaller ( this is only a starting point you do understand it is your show after all ) the lenght of the fades are set in customise slide > effects tick fade box go to bottom and set duration to say 3000 for a slow and hopefully smooth transition then 3 you can preview without creating a slide show and save the .pte file but to distribute it like this the other person is going to have P TO EXE to view this type of file I " THINK " as for Blackcountry by BBDIGITAL Barry has some tutorial CD's for a reasonable cost available on his site I hope you get lots more help with object editor I do not use this facility but lot do and are probably right to do so I just do it my way so I can not really help out there Keep on Rocking

Regards Clive

[Guest guru]

Dear Marianne, I too welcome you! But don't start immediately by too complex shows, please. Make first some exercises, to learn to know and use perfectly all the main functions of PTE (they are not so few...). But this is only a personal advice; do what you like better!

As to your questions, here are my answers.

1. Barry "bbdigital" used many objects in his show, but also many images built with Photoshop.

2. If fading effects are not smooth, the reason can be

- A. a too slow machine (we'd noticed that CPU frequency must be at least 400-450 MHz to obtain fades smooth enough);

- B. a not adequate amount of Ram memory (not less than 128 MB with Windows 95/98/ME, more with 2000/XP).

- C. too large images.

"Thickness of smoothing like" (default 40) has no relevance for fades; as for "Effect Duration", we have noticed that a little longer time (2000 - 3000 msec.) allows a little better smoothing effect.

3. In general, most shows are made by 800 x 600 pictures. In your case (you say your show "must play on lots of (sometimes slow) computers"), you can use even smaller pictures, for example 640 x 480, with a background all around. As for Jpeg compression, Photoshop shows on the screen the result, so you can chose personally. A very good idea is to "save for the web" option, that optimizes your Jpegs for the best appearance on the screen: 50-60% is often a good compromise. And don't forget a little "Contrast Mask" filter!

4. Sure it's possible, and it's a very good idea! You can find very useful samples on Michel site (Fanaphot.com), above all the "mini diaporama de Christopher - USA, uploadé le 24/03/03, 970KB", full of objects and fading effects. To download this sample, the exact URL is http://www.fanaphot.com/PTE/ptemenu.htm (near the end of the page).

And if you understand French (your name is French!...), Fanaphot site is a real mine of excellent manuals, samples and advices.

[Marianne]

Thank you Clive and guru.

I looked at the French site and those examples are just what I needed. I kind of know my way around in Photoshop, so that won't be a big problem. My ambition though is a problem. I want it immediately to be perfect . But you are right ofcourse. It takes a lot of practicing to get the level of Barry.

And eh guru, my name may be French, but I am all Dutch. Luckily they did learn me something in school, so I do read French.

Marianne

[Guest guru]

Hi Marianne!

It can be useful to analyse also "Starwars" and "About artist Nicholas Roerich" (Sources) available at WnSoft site, and also at Fanaphot Forum.

They are two old Igor's interesting shows, without synchronization but very instructive for some almost forgotten functions of PTE. You must extract .zip files to C:\.

I hope to see very soon a show by you!

Greetings to you and Holland.

[Barry Beckham]

Marianne

Just read your mail about black country, I actually use PTE quite basically and all the work is done in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for the slides that blend fropm one to another as parts are added.

Basically all that is, is a montage of 5 or 6 images, broken apart and each layer or added part is then saved as a slide.

Some advice already given is good and that is to start a bit more basic and work up.

There is some information on my web site here http://www.barrybeckham.co.uk/tutorials/tu...v/startercd.htm

with a tutorial CD that is available if you still need some help.

bbdigital